Remember Where You Were...

...When you first heard the name Wladimir Mendoza. Over at Get Up Baby! they have the following take on the prize prospect on the Card's Venezuelan team (evidently we do have one of those):

But one pitcher stands out enough to not only make the Not-Top Twenties on an exception, but to be the official Get Up, Baby! Longshot Prospect of 2007. Our patron saint, if you will, since I’ve heard exactly one sentence about his abilities from someone who’s seen him play. And that player is Wladimir Mendoza. His numbers–which admittedly need to be taken with a huge grain of salt–speak volumes:

IP H BB K HR K/9 BB/9 K:BB ERA
75.2 50 47 89 2 10.59 5.59 1.89 2.26

That appears to be the work of a live arm. But ten of his runs allowed came in two miserable outings. Let’s take those out, and see what we have left.

IP H BB K HR K/9 BB/9 K:BB ERA
66.0 38 36 82 2 11.18 4.91 2.28 1.23

So he was old for his league–20–and his control was still pretty bad, but when his command wasn’t totally off he was off-the-charts dominant. According to an interview of Jeff Luhnow, VP of player development, that Scout.com conducted a while back, he’s got a fastball that sits in the low-90s and “the makings of a good breaking pitch.” In the Liga Paralela, a Venezuelan winter league, he allowed one earned run and struck out nineteen in fifteen innings pitched. We probably won’t hear from him again until short season leagues open up in June, but when that happens he’ll get the first sidebar spot since I tracked Rick Ankiel’s first season as an outfielder. Let’s hope this goes a little better.

It is the season to get worked up about kids you will probably never see in a big league uniform. What else is there to do until pitchers and catchers report?

Speaking of propects, if you haven't checked out Future Redbirds yet, do so. It is one stop shopping for the Cards farm system. Can't live without weekly Rick Ankiel updates? Future Redbirds is the place for you.

Comments

Early Thoughts on City 2025

There are few things harder to keep track of than an MLS side in their off-season, at least for me. Despite the fact it takes place roughly during the time the MLB Hot Stove season is in full swing, it is nowhere near as easy to follow along with as baseball. Part of it is how disconnected MLS is with the international soccer calendar. St. Louis City SC is still digesting the moves it made last summer even though those players have already played important games for the club. It is all weird and disjointed, and I always feel like I am playing catch-up. Happily, the moves made in the off-season this year were not numerous. German Timo Baumgartl comes over from Europe as an option at center back, which is good because that was a position that was a little rocky for City last season. Given his own troubles over the last few seasons (cancer and uneven play in the aftermath of that), a spell with City can give Baumgartl a chance to have a re-set. Given his pedigree and the fact City si...

Blues Fall Off a Cliff

Hockey seasons will have their ups and downs. For whatever reason, be it injuries, a challenging schedule, an inexplicable loss of form, it is difficult for teams to maintain a good level of compete for an entire season. The good teams just limit their funks. The St. Louis Blues, however, are not a good team. They are a poor team, and poor teams sink under the weight of "here we go again" night after night. I will admit I only watched the first two periods of last night's 5-0 loss to a Colorado team that had been scuffling of late. Two periods were more than enough to get the gist of it. It was also enough to lead me to a diagnosis as to what ails the team. It isn't that they are young and are going through growing pains. No, the reason the Blues are so bad is that the veterans who are being paid to be the backbone of this team are not doing their jobs. I'm talking about Schenn, Buchnevich, Faulk, and even Binnington and Parayko. Over $30M of the salary cap is b...

A Note of Optimism About the Note

If you have been trying to watch the St. Louis Blues attempt to play hockey of late it would be hard to believe the word optimism could ever be in play. The losses continue relentlessly, often in the "never in the game" style, but increasingly in a "lose from winning position" flair which is enough to make someone turn on the news for an upbeat change of pace. (Wow, plane crashes and LUNACY!) This team still can't score with the regularity needed to win consistently in this league. The coaching staff knows they have precious few natural goal scorers (one is precious few), so they attempt to make up for it by getting what I call "process" goals, i.e. goals scored by virtue of constant pressure, crazy bounces, accidental deflections, etc. Basically, any goal you can get from a player who doesn't have the knack for scoring them on their own. The Blues are something like zero for their last 12-15 breakaway chances, and zero for their last 25-30 2 on 1...

(Get) A Sporting Life

Search This Blog